The Nigeria Shipowners Association of Nigeria (NISA) has inaugurated its newly elected executive council to pilot its affairs for the next two years.
The association has Otunba Sola Adewunmi as its President. Chief Isaac Jolapamo also emerged as its Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT).
In his acceptance speech Adewumi thanked members of the association for the confidence reposed in the new executives of NISA just as he ssured that the interest of members will be protected while extending the olive branch to aggrieved members to join hands with him in building a more vibrant association.
His words: “During every election, there are bound to be some people that would be aggrieved, I just want to appeal to everyone to come together so that we can form a very strong association for the benefit of all concerned”.
He also used the occasion of the inauguration to announce the readiness of his newly elected executives to hit the ground running by moving to a newly fully furnished secretariat before the end of May 2023.
“I am also confident that we’ll be moving to our new fully furnished secretariat alongside all the members of staff before the end of May 2023”, he added.
He expressed the readiness of his team to work with the Federal Government to harness the huge potential of the maritime industry.
His words: “We will work with the vision and ideas of the founding fathers of the association, I also have a young vibrant team that can deliver and I believe we can achieve a lot. As we all know, shipping is a trillion-naira industry. Maritime itself is an industry and shipping is a big aspect of the maritime industry. We will be liaising with all the relevant agencies including the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA). There are so many areas that we can venture into. We are going to tap into all that shipping encompasses. We are going to work with everybody to ensure that we expand the scope.
“One of the problems we have was that government didn’t really pay attention to shipping as it should, and one of the objectives of this association is to ensure that we draw the government’s attention to the industry to bridge the unemployment gap in the country and I am sure we will achieve that. We’ll liaise with the new government and make recommendations on how to leverage the many advantages of shipping because we have so many countries living solely on shipping.”
He revealed that the Nigerian Maritime Expo (NIMAREX) a brainchild of the association will hold before the end of 2023 or early next year.
According to him, we wouldn’t want to put up an haphazard event, so, if the event does not happen in 2023, it will take place in early 2024. We’ll institute a strong committee that will drive this project. As we all know, this event is fashioned after the offshore technology conference (OTC). We’ll come together to fashion how best to showcase the Nigerian maritime industry to the world
Jolapamo on his part, revealed that there is so much work to be done while expressing confidence in the ability of the new executive to hit the ground running now that the baton of leadership has been handed to them.
The NISA BoT Chairman expressed hope that the new administration will be fairer to the new executives.“Let us see some changes. We’ve been in this fight for so long without getting anywhere. Your administration will bring about the realization of the reasons why the association was created in the first place”, Jolapamo added.
